


I Know, Loser.

by dob



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 12:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13811235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dob/pseuds/dob
Summary: Peter finds out Michelle knows.





	I Know, Loser.

**Author's Note:**

> Word Count: 2671
> 
> A/N: This is my first Spider-Man/Spideychelle fic so I'm very nervous about it. I feel like this ended up being a big jumbled mess but hopefully, even if it is, I do their characters justice. If you liked the story please leave a kudos! It'd be much appreciated!
> 
> As always, no proof read or beta reading, posted straight from first draft.

"Do you think she knows?" Peter whispered to Ned, looking over at the dark haired girl planted at the end of their table. Ever since the Under the Mask news report Betty and Jason did and Michelle admitted that she had her suspicions on who Spider-Man was, he couldn't stop thinking about it. And with the comment she made when tried to quit Decathlon about how she was "very observant", Peter might be panicking about it a little bit.

Ever since May found out that he was Spider-Man, he's been extra careful on keeping his secret identity a secret. First Tony Stark, than Ned, and than his first super-villain all finding out who he was, May was just the last straw. If Michelle knew, it'd just be icing on the cake really. And it's not that he didn't think she couldn't figure it out, she is the smartest people he ever met. But if she knew, if, it'd just be another fact that Peter really isn't good at keeping the secret that's supposed to be secret. It also made him that much more cautious about where he and when he takes him mask off, what he doesn't and does talk about in public, how he acts.

Ned looked at him with a confused look, "What?" He followed Peter's line of sight towards the girl at the end of their table before looking back at his best friend, "Know what?"

Peter raised his eyebrows, "You know, about the Stark Internship?"

Ned blinked at him, "Everyone knows about the internship, Peter." The smaller boy gave his friend a look, waiting for what Peter meant to register to his friend. Peter loved Ned, he was one of the smartest guys he knew when it came to computers and electronics, but sometimes he could be a little slow. "Oh!" Ned covered his mouth as people around them looked at them, leaned toward Peter and whispered back, "Why? Do you?"

Peter looked back at Michelle, her eyes still on the pages of her book, completely ignoring them. Even though since Homecoming she's considered them and most of the Decathlon team her friends, she sort of stays to herself. She's honestly the most weird and aloof person Peter has ever meant, he never really knows how to respond to half the stuff she says.

And he might believe that she does know, that he's Spider-Man.

Instead he shrugs, "Maybe."

He sees her later that day on patrol. He's standing on a building across from this old used book store when he spots her walking out. He and Ned have been there once before, it's sort of how he would picture Flourish and Blotts to look like. Books piled upon books piled upon books, the shelves so packed together it almost took all of Peter's strength to pull one out - this was pre-bite of course. Seeing Michelle walk out wasn't surprising at all, both hands holding a stack of books close to her chest. It probably is the perfect spot for a book lover like her. All the books where in real good condition too, which was a surprise to him when he first went in there. The only time he went in there, really, though he's not sure why he and Ned have never gone back.

He watched her as she walked down the sidewalk, his eyes following her just as he watched as someone on a bike fly past her, barely hitting her but just enough to send all her books flying to the ground. Without thinking, Peter shoots out a web and swings down to her, helping her pick up her books. Putting on his crappy Brooklyn accent he used on the Decathlon team back in Washington he said, "Here you go, Miss," the books she hadn't gotten in his extended hands. She takes them from him, her eyes narrowed and she looks at him.

It makes him frigid, bouncing from one foot to the other as she continues to look at him through the split between her eyebrows. After a few seconds, Peter decides that he's uncomfortable enough and gives her a wave, "Okay, well see ya around," getting ready to web out of there when he hears her say, "That's a horrible Brooklyn accent."

"What're you talkin' about?" He looks at her, not even trying to hide the offense.

She rolls her eyes, hugging her books to her chest, "Thanks Loser," and she's off again down the sidewalk. He watched her walk away, glad he had a mask on so she - or anyone around - could see his shocked face. Just from that comment alone he was sure that she knew.

As he and Ned spend more time with her, hanging outside school and Decathlon, he thought that she’d mention something. Days turned into months she didn’t say or given any sort of hint that she knew, not outside their one interaction outside the bookstore. Which started to make him doubt the fact that she even knew that he was Spider-Man.

But she called him loser. Who would call Spider-Man loser?

...Michelle probably would.

* * *

 

As the end of their sophomore year came around, he started to wonder if he should ask her about Spider-Man. He and Ned have learned not to talk superheroes with her, it usually leads to her spilling conspiracy theories about Damage Control and the Avengers and how Captain America and Tony Stark aren't that great of people and are really trying to find some way to take over the world. Peter tries to come to Mr. Stark's defense but it's to no avail. He will admit tho - never to Michelle's face - that her theories can be kind of convincing and very amusing.

It's the second to last week of school, Peter still has annual detentions because - being Spider-Man - he has to skip a lot of classes and it piles up. He's sitting beside Michelle who, as always, is drawing in her sketch book. Coach Wilson is looking like he's about to pass out any minute so Peter knows if he needed to he could just check out to start his patrols early, he doesn't though. May is still on him about all the stuff he didn't fill her in on and even though he is Spider-Man, she says he still needs to keep up on his school work. "In case this superhero thing falls through."

He supposes if he was going to ask her about Spider-Man, see if he can figure out if she really knows anything or not, now would be a good time to ask. Coach Wilson wouldn't care, act like it maybe if he heard them, but he's probably the biggest slack in the whole school. "Hey, Michelle." He kept his voice low, lifting his head from his arms and leaning her direction. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Gotta any theories on Spider-Man?" It was out of the blue and not a question he would usually ask her. Truthfully, Peter didn't ask Michelle a lot of questions, that was mostly Ned, so when she gave him a curious look mixed with a bit of shock, he couldn't really blame her.

They're friends but Peter really isn't always the best friend to Michelle.

Ned pointed it out one day because Ned's his Man in the Chair and that's basically his job.

He's trying to be better.

He replies to her way faster than he does anyone else - except maybe May and Ned - and he makes sure to almost always pick up when she calls. Almost because sometimes picking up his phone when he's taking town a criminal isn't exactly the easiest or smartest thing. Karen doesn't believe so, but she's not really the one fighting so Peter doesn't really listen to his Suit Lady.

Her response is to shrug, “I have my suspicious,” she says it the same way she did in the news interview and it makes him jittery. 

“Okay,” Peter nods, deciding not to back down on this, “what they were?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, tilting her head. Her gears were working, trying to deduct the reason he would be interested in her theories all of a sudden. He knows she’s figured out why Peter and Ned stop talking about The Avengers around her and Damage Control and any of that sort. She never took it to heart - or he assumes she didn’t because she still sits with him and Ned as well as the other Decathlon kids and participates in conversations whenever she feels like its needed.

Seconds pass before she opens her mouth again, “You never cared about them before, why now?”

Peter shrugged, “I have nothing better to do?” He cringed as soon as the words came out of his mouth.

She let out a hum, turning back to her sketch. “I’ll email you my notes.” And than they were back to not really saying anything, Peter understanding that any more prying would be useless. His eyes turned to the clock, watching as the seconds ticked away before he could suit up for his daily patrol.

* * *

 

She never did email him any notes about her theories about who Spider-Man. He checked his email frequently, in case he missed it. Checked every folder, his main to his junk mail. Nothing came.

He waited days before he decided to ask her about it. She seemed surprised - barely - that he was still interested, like him asking in detention had been some sort of fluke and she didn’t expect much to come from it. Could Peter really blame her? Probably not. They were better friends than before but it was more Ned and Michelle who kept conversations going at lunch, Ned who showed interest, Ned who got Michelle to talk first. Peter just stood idly by and stared in confusion - and sometimes awe - at the things that came out of his classmates mouth.

“Didn’t really think you were actually that interested?”

He scratched the back of his neck. “Well we’re friends now aren’t we? Friends are supposed to share interests.” That was a half truth, it should count right? It’s not like his own agenda should matter in the fact or anything right?

He still felt a little guilty.

“Right.” She turned to her locker, opening it and pulling out a blue folder, the cover having a little Spidey insignia on it. She could really draw. “Here. If you’re really so interested.” Than she shut her locker and walked off.

Did she really have all her information on Spider-Man in a folder just chilling in her locker?

He looked up from the folder and off in the direction Michelle went, watching as she turned the corner to go to her next class. After a couple of seconds he opened the folder to see their was nothing in it except a piece of notepaper that said “I know, Loser.” The rest of the page taken up by a drawing of a giant middle finger.

He was stuck between the feelings of impressed and anxiousness.

Peter saw this coming, he  _did_ , but knowing that she knew was still something that made his heart skip and than drop to his feet. But before he could think to chase her, he felt his phone vibrate in his pants. Pulling it out, he saw it was a notification that something was going on downtown. Something that would need a little help from the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

By the time he wrapped up, school had ended and he missed the decathlon meeting. He was perched on a railing of a fire escape, looking at his phone and letting out a deep sigh. He stared at the messages from Ned and Michelle.

 _Michelle_! Her name blared in his mind as he remembered, she  _knew_. He wondered if he could swing by to the school and catch her before she was too far away. Their friendship hasn’t really made it to the ‘this is my house’ exchange just yet.

He swung as fast as he could back to Midtown High, knowing that decathlon had been over for a good fifteen minutes. Michelle always turned left when he was going right so he knew a general direction to aim for. “Karen, keep an eye out for Michelle.”

“I don’t have any eyes,” Karen replied back.

“You know what I mean!”

He watched as his mask eyes zoomed in and out of the area, using his Spidey sense to help him multitask and not plummet to his death or smack into any buildings near by.

“There she is,” Karen zoomed in on the back of Michelle’s head, her head down in a book and there was no doubt that it was Michelle. He kept swinging behind her, keeping eyes locked. Well, that was until he heard a sound of someone getting robbed. “Shall we reroute?”

“Yeah,” with the momentum of his swing, Peter did a full 360, Karen having the eyes of his suit instead zoom in on where the sound was coming from.

A day of work is never down for Queen’s neighborhood Spider-Man.

“She knows?!” Ned’s voice hit an octave Peter never knew his friend could it, though he was still able to keep his voice low.

“I guess.” Peter looked over at the decathlon table. Michelle, as always, was sitting at the end with a book in front of her, but she was having a conversation with Cindy. She was smiling. He turned back to Ned, “I don’t think I’m really surprised?”

“Well, yeah. Why would you be? Michelle’s the smartest person in our grade.” Peter let out a huff, “Second smartest?” Ned threw out with a grimaced smile. Michelle actually was really smart, the one thing that Peter for sure knows that he really tops her in is science, every other subject between the two of them is very neck in neck.

She was the reason they won decathlon last year. And why she’s captain now.

* * *

 

He called her that night, not really expecting her to pick up considering how late it was (he just got down with patrols), but she did. He could hear her turning a page on the other side.

Of course, she’s up this late because she’s reading.

Seconds passed by and neither spoke, Michelle didn’t even answer with a hi! After it probably hit the two minute mark, she decided to finally speak up. “You remember you called  _me_ , right? That you’re not calling...” she trailed off, “What do you want, Peter?” 

Taking in a deep breath, he forced himself to talk, “How long have you known?”

She was silent for a while, but weirdly, this silence didn’t make him jittery. “A couple of months after your uncle passed.”

He practically dropped the phone.

“You’ve known for eight months?!” He choked on his own spit. “How?”

“I pay attention.” She says it as if it’s the most obvious answer. “You and Ned confirmed it months later, talking about it in the gym. I’m surprised all of Midtown High doesn’t know, honestly.” He choked again. He knew talking about it in school was a bad idea! Why did he answer Ned about the Captain America thing?!  _Idiot!_  “And than all the times Spider-Man showed up and you weren’t around. Like the Decathlon Meet. All the decathlon meetings you missed well Spidey was off gallivanting around Queens.”

He smacked himself in the forehead. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

She didn’t answer right away again, he heard another page turn. Was she reading and having this conversation with him? As soon as that thought crossed his mind, he already knew the answer. “Didn’t see a reason.”

“And you just kept the secret the whole time?”

“Wasn’t mind to spill.” She answered, not missing a beat. He felt his heart skip a beat, and not from the usual panic he feels when talking about his secret identity to people.

“Thanks.” He paused, “MJ.”


End file.
